Information handling devices (“devices”) come in a variety of forms, for example laptop computing devices, tablet computing devices, smart phones, e-readers, MP3 players, and the like. Many such devices include or are used in combination with keyboards.
With the multiplicity of form factors available, many different keyboard and user input designs are utilized. For example, more traditional keyboards are often omitted in certain devices such as smart phones and tablet computers in favor of “soft keys”, i.e., keys areas implemented on a touch or gesture interactive surface such as a touch screen. Moreover, other devices are designed to include a keyboard interface on a touch screen as well as a physical keyboard. In some cases the physical keyboards are detachable from the device.
The available keyboards include those having conventional mechanical keys areas (i.e., keys that are mechanically displaceable on depression by a user providing a key stroke) and keyboards including non-mechanical keys, i.e., not mechanically displaceable but accepting input using non-mechanically sensed input, e.g., touch detection. Non-mechanical keyboards have become popular. Non-mechanical keyboards include touch based keyboards such as implemented on a touch screen as well as membrane keyboards.
Thin, non-mechanical keyboards are popular due to their low weight and thinness. As an example, the MICROSOFT SURFACE tablet computer is optionally outfitted with a membrane keyboard. Instead of using mechanical keys that displace (i.e., travel and engage an underlying switch), the membrane keyboards leverage technologies such as capacitive and resistive sensors to determine when a user is pushing on a key. The result is a thin, mostly flat, one piece keyboard.